Winter in Odessa

As I write this the weather has taken a change for the better. It’s about 4deg today, which is positively tropical considering what it has been like. Where I come from in England, the weather rarely goes below 5deg in the winter, we also rarely see snow. It’s a stark contrast to Ukraine.

The long cold winter

This has been my first full winter in Ukraine, with temperatures down to -15 and a wind chill making it feel like -30. It’s either too cold to go out or there’s no motivation to go out. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that the heating in my flat is terrible. It’s an old Soviet building with old pipes and electrics.

Sometimes the heating breaks, sometimes there’s no water and other days, no power for hours on end. In the UK we just accept that things work properly so it has taken a bit of getting used to.

The view from my flat

In the winter there’s not much to do here either. Everything’s closed. Odessa is definitely a summer city, the beaches, street cafes and outdoor events mean there’s always something to do in the summer. Also the general atmosphere is 100 times better too.

Today it feels like spring is just around the corner and it couldn’t come soon enough. The good thing about Odessa is that it has a great spring/summer climate, unlike England which has 2 weeks of summer followed by 50 weeks of wind and rain. I don’t miss that at all!

Caught in a snowstorm

The future

At the moment my plan is to stay in Ukraine for another year. It will mean enduring another cold winter but maybe this year I’ll reward myself with a trip somewhere warm over Christmas.

Once I finish my stint in Odessa, I will leave Ukraine and travel for a while. There are a few European countries I still haven’t been to, which I’d like to cross off my list.

After a few months of travel I’ll probably take another teaching job. This time somewhere with a warmer winter, maybe Central America or perhaps Vietnam or Thailand. Or maybe I’ll go back to making films, who knows. I’d like to start making some documentaries as I travel.